|
ISSUE 5 - FALL 2010
FEATURE STORY: CRM 2011
PREVIEW
CRM 2011 is coming and as one participant said at a
recent partner sneak-peek event, “It’s a game changer.”
CRM
2011 is more than a simple upgrade. It’s possibly one of
the most significant enhancements to any of the Dynamics
products that we’ve seen in years. During its launch
there are three themes that Microsoft will be promoting
which very accurately capture the enhancements in CRM
2011: Familiar, Intelligent and Connected.
Familiar
CRM
2011’s goal is to be familiar to everyday users and
nowhere is that more apparent than in CRM 2011’s
integration to Outlook. More than just an Outlook
plug-in, CRM 2011 is literally built in to Outlook. CRM
2011 works more as a natural extension of Outlook than
ever before.
The
web client is also familiar because it looks and works
very similar to the Outlook client. Moving from the
Outlook client to the web client should be pretty
seamless for most users although there are a few
features missing in the web client such as the very
slick conditional formatting that is now part of the
Outlook client.
CRM 2011 Outlook Experience
Conditional formatting is one of those really stand-out
features and is very similar to conditional formatting
in Excel. Want to see which customers haven’t ordered in
6 months? Want to see your top 10% accounts? A few
clicks of the mouse to set the condition and the format
style and presto, you can have your customer list with
your targeted customer in bold, underline, color or
whatever formatting you choose.
The
addition of the CRM ribbon to Outlook combines the
familiar Office ribbon concept to CRM allowing for easy
interface between Outlook and CRM. The Office Ribbon
concept is carried though-out CRM so that it looks and
works just like other office applications. Real-time
export to Excel and PowerPoint support gives users the
option of interfacing with their CRM data using those
familiar office tools. Role based forms, and ‘Drag n
Drop’ customization round out the familiarization
concept.
Intelligent
Making
the system more intelligent was a key driver in CRM
2011. Perhaps the most powerful of these new features is
the new real-time dashboard. Prebuilt dashboard
components can be dragged and dropped allowing each user
to quickly build their own dashboard. Dashboards are
updated in real time.
One of
the slickest features is that rather than being static,
display only elements, the dashboard items are fully
interactive. With one click you can drill-down into the
data used to generate a chart or graph and then filter
and manipulate the chart or graph and watch the source
data be instantly updated to match the graph. It’s a
whole new way to navigate through your data.
Real-time Dashboard
Especially for organizations like call centers or where
customer service reps are employed, new interactive
workflows can be designed and deployed to step a user
through a process, for example, you can build a work
flow with a series of steps or questions and depending
on the answer step the user to the next appropriate
question or step in the process.
Other
new features falling under the category of intelligent
include new field level security, role based forms,
flexible goal management and auditing.
Connected
Very
few software systems exist in a vacuum today and CRM is
certainly no exception. CRM 2011 takes connectivity to a
new level with built-in integration to SharePoint, the
new CRM Marketplace and the previously mentioned Outlook
and Office integration.
CRM
2011 now provides standard SharePoint integration. You
can now setup document folders
automatically in SharePoint when you create entities in
CRM. And any document created, updated, and saved in
those SharePoint folders is automatically available in
CRM. Best of all, this integration works with any
combination of hosted, on-premises or online deployments
of SharePoint or CRM.
SharePoint Integration
The new CRM Marketplace, available
within CRM to Administrators, brings 3rd
Party ISV applications directly to CRM customers. You
can search for specific applications, download
information, even download evaluation copies and if you
like what you see, purchase the software. It should make
it easier than ever before for customers to access the
large library of ISV add-ons for CRM.
We already covered the Outlook and
Office integration but one final note about Outlook.
Like SharePoint, Outlook/Exchange integration can occur
regardless of which flavor of CRM you have, hosted,
on-premises or CRM Online. If you have an in-house
Exchange Server and CRM Online, no problem. You can even
integrate a hosted Exchange to any CRM deployment type.
What to look out for
The
biggest caveat’s with CRM 2011 is the requirements list.
First of all for on-premises deployments, CRM 2011 now
requires a 64-bit server running Windows Server 64-bit.
That could be a major upgrade for many IT shops. On the
client end, Outlook 2010 and Office 2010 are required to
take advantage of the new features there. SharePoint
integration likewise requires SharePoint 2010.
So
make sure you perform a thorough assessment of your
hardware and software. And make sure you carefully
consider all of your options including CRM Online or
partner hosted CRM.
Conclusion
CRM
2011 is definitely a game changer. And we’ve only
scratched the surface here. For a more in-depth look at
CRM 2011, visit
http://www.crm2011beta.com. There you’ll find some
informative product videos and you can sign-up for the
CRM 2011 beta, including CRM Online, and get a free look
at the product before it launches.
CRM 2011 is scheduled to be released
before the end of the year. Contact Dynamics Source at
866-823-0338 or
contact@dynamicssource.com for more details.
Email to a Colleague |
